Home security

DF had electrically operated curtains on a time switch that opened and shut at the same time as lights went on and off. That did not stop a night time raid, when the burglars assumed he was in the house because they accidentally knocked something ove and scarpered in case he woke. He was actually away and came home to find most of the things they had intended to take neatly lined up by the back door.

Some time ago I reported an incident at our local park to the police. I arrived home to find a police officer waiting at the front door. He'd been there several minutes and commented we'd never be burgled because the dogs sounded ferocious. We do have an alarm but he said dogs are the best deterrent.
My fil recorded his dogs and set up some kind of elaborate electrical thing that switched lights on and off, and played the noise of the dogs barking at various intervals. This was for their isolated house, which was often empty.

Our last house had an alarm, and one day ,when we were there and DH was mucking about with it, it went off,whooo, so loud,for ages, and not one person in the lane came out to check!

When our alarm was first installed we paid for a monitoring service but when we had the attempted break in the neighbours responded so quickly the problem had been dealt with before the monitoring service could respond.

Even if you live in an area where external alarms are ignored it is still worth having an alarm because the alarm also sounds an earsplitting alarm in the house that drives most intruders out. Squirrels got into our roof and chewed through the alarm at 2.00am. We had to wait over an hour for an emergency repairman. The sound inside was intolerable. We sat in the kitchen with the door into the rest of the house shut and a cushion over each ear and my ears were still ringing two days later.

One thing I do if alone, I always take my phone up by my bed, just in case. Would be a good idea to have some nearby friendly neighbours tel nos in phone, just in case.

We have an alarm system, but I've always had doubts about how effective burglar alarms are. They go off regularly around here and no one seems to take a lot of notice. Because we are around a lot, whenever something has triggered our neighbours' alarms, DH will always try and have a look, though what he would do if he encountered a burglar I don't know! Almost everyone around us works during the day, so if ours went off no-one would be there to take any notice. We have security locks and window locks and just keep our fingers crossed that, having been burgled twice, it won't happen again.

In Wiltshire we have a free police-based service called Bobbyvan.
They give free security and home safety checks so it would definitely be worth seeing if you have it, or something similar, locally.

We have had three break-ins and one attempted break-in at three different properties. We have an alarm system.

I think security lights are counter productive. If you are not in they give the intruder all the light they need to see what they are doing when they break in. Window locks are not much better. One break-in we had, the intruder broke six windows because he found every window he broke had a lock on it. Finally he broke one at the front which was low enough to climb through without cutting himself on the broken glass.

The attempted break-in was at our current home and the intruder set the alarm off and scarpered empty handed.

We have good locks on outside doors and window locks but no alarm. I am very careful about shutting windows when I go out and always double lock the doors the back gate has a padlock on too . A security light at the front door but at my brothers house they simply took the bulbs out of them before breaking into his van.

We've been here 17yrs so far and no problems.

We have an alarm, window locks, door locks....everything really. BUT one day we went out , came back a couple of hours later, entered house....there were 3 burglars IN THE HOUSE! It took me a while to register what was happening...I momentarily thought they were friends of my son. One of them pushed me, ran upstairs, jumped out the bathroom window and put his foot through the flat roof below. The other two ran off. We had made two mistakes. Firstly we hadn't put the alarm on. Secondly we had left a window slightly open. That was a really scary experience! But we learned our lesson and are now very strict on security.

Yes, I think minimo and marymlisi are in cahoots!

Think it's an advert! HQ aware

Hildaw I did not notice but my saving grace is that I did not start the post!

Why is this discussion under 'Style and Beauty'?

Why not check with your insurance company re what type of alarm they recommend because they will not insure all alarm systems.

There are 2 ADT systems close to me but apart from paying to install they also pay around £24 monthly. A fellow comes round every few months trying to flog them. That is when I am a pensioner and could not afford that system.

I have a video entry system, 2 cameras back and front which I can view on my TV and one of those annoying sensor lights at the rear which comes on if a fly goes past.

I used to go out most days early pm but I am trying to vary the time and days so that I hardly know, never mind anybody else.

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We have security lights and an alarm, window locks also. What else can you do?

We have 4 security cameras outside, 2 at the back and 2 at the front of the house.

We have a domestic safe installed. We put in all the important documents, jewellry and small sentimental stuff.

We also have an alarm and window locks.

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We had an alarm fitted after a series of burglaries in the area. Also a beware of the dog sign, but no dog (yet).

Many years ago we experienced a burglary. Police advice at the time was that a properly installed alarm was a proven deterrent. It did feel more secure after installation and so much easier to leave our home empty. All about confidence really.

I have security lights both back and front, window locks, bolts and chains on doors, movement sensors in all downstairs rooms and an alarm. I live alone and my DH organised all this when he knew he wouldn't be around to watch out for me. I'm not overly nervous although a series of break ins locally have made be more vigilant about setting the alarm and locks!